1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to water cooling towers, and in particular to flow grate structures erected inside cooling towers for the transfer of heat from hot cooling water to a flow of air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among flow grate structures for cooling towers known from the prior art is one disclosed in the German Allowed Application (Auslegeschrift) No. 1,276,061 which features a cooling installation composed of a plurality of grate units having upright webs, preferably of plastic material, intersecting each other to form cells or fields, preferably square in outline. A complete cooling installation thus consists of a large number of grate units arranged in successive superposed layers, with an intermediate gap, if desired, so as to form cascade-type flow passages for the hot cooling water.
Each grate unit thus defines a number of cells which are open on both ends, the water flowing downward between the webs constituting the cell walls. The aforementioned known installation features superposed grate units where vertically adjacent units are longitudinally offset by one-half of the cell width, in order to create as much as possible a cascading and splashing effect of the falling water drops. However, the longitudinal offset between successive layers of grate units brings with it a certain difficulty, inasmuch as the outer end walls of the grate units are no longer vertically aligned, and the spacer elements between the various layers must be laterally offset accordingly.